slow every bootstrap for us (which we do frequently) to work around a relatively rare issue.
Nick's solution of using acinclude.m4 seems ideal. But just in case: I think you could also avoid the extra libtoolize calls by doing them only if the automake --version is x.y.9*, i.e., a test release. Or, more directly, check for $automakeprefix>/share/aclocal*/libtool.m4 and only do the libtoolize if not already there. I mean, where automake_prefix=$(dirname $(which automake))/.. Or something like that. You get the idea, I'm sure :). But wouldn't it be better to make such a solution part of Automake and have it gracefully handle this situation for everyone? Sure, clearly a graceful solution for everyone would be ideal. But in terms of the pending 1.17 release, I don't want to do something as potentially destabilizing as defining a stub LT_INIT in aclocal. That seems like it has great potential for confusion and problems. Also, looking at Automake/Variable.pm, there are a bunch of various/functions handled in the same way, e.g., CC vs. AC_PROG_CC just like LIBTOOL vs. LT_INIT. Although I think LT_INIT is the only one not defined by Automake or Autoconf. At any rate, It would also be nice to see an actual patch, since my knowledge of aclocal/automake<->libtool interaction is limited, at best, so I'm not sure offhand where or how to make such a change. Meanwhile, I'll at least tweak the (test relese) NEWS and error message as you suggested. --thanks, karl.